Energy complaints handling: Best and worst firms

New supplier Places for People Energy has been ranked at the top of the league table for complaints handling while Extra Energy is said to be the worst.

The latter firm is at the bottom of Citizens Advice’s latest ranking – which measures how well energy companies are handling customer complaints – for the third consecutive quarter.

It reveals customers are continuing to report billing problems, including cases where people didn’t get a bill for more than a year and some had issues switching to different suppliers.

However Extra Energy has improved on its score from last quarter, with a complaint ratio of 1505.7 per 100,000 customers compared to 1791.2.

Extra Energy apologised “unreservedly” to customers who did not receive a high standard of service.

Managing Director of Operations Ben Jones added: “Our billing technology works extremely effectively but as we’ve grown we have unfortunately faced some challenges. One complaint is a complaint too many and we’re working incredibly hard to continue improving the service customers receive.

“We’re confident that by continuing to invest heavily in the UK we can revolutionise the energy market and not only offer leading prices but also excellent service.”

E (Gas and Electricity) has been ranked in second place, followed by SSE – previously in first place – EDF Energy, British Gas, E.ON and Ovo Energy.

Big Six firms npower and ScottishPower – ranked 15th and 18th out of 22 suppliers – are said to have improved, with both companies’ complaints ratio dropping by around a third on the last quarter.

Green Start Energy, Co-operative Energy and iSupply have been ranked in the 19th, 20th and 21st positions.

Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said: “People’s time and money is being wasted trying to get energy firms to sort out complaints. All energy suppliers should be delivering a first-rate service as standard and resolving their customers’ problems quickly instead of letting them drag on.

“It’s good to see that some energy firms are starting to get to grips with billing issues that have been causing such a headache for their customers. It’s crucial that all suppliers act fast to clear up these problems sooner rather than later.”